Japan's CG animation industry strikes me as being quite a bit behind compared to Hollywood. Granted, the latter probably has millions of more dollars to spend, but even the effects in the Ang Lee Hulk (which were heavily criticized) look better than a contemporary Japanese film.

CG animation was hideous for a long time. It took ages of ratchet ish like Reboot and Beast Wars before anyone but Pixar could make something at least as good as Toy Story. And while Toy Story looks terrible (imagine if it was a movie with animals or humans...) it cost $30M in 1995 and made that back times ten. Now days even Pixar’s competitors put over $100M into these lame movies. I don’t really think people in Japan by and large have a big interest in watching or making 3D animation and that’s most of it but also nobody makes movies that expensive in Japan so that’s two reasons why they are so behind. They’d rather produce Ghost in the Shell or Ponyo than spend 4x the money making something nobody likes.

I wasn't even talking about full CG animated features, I was thinking more in the lines of the live action Tetsujin 28 which came out in 2005 - or even many of the Millennium Godzilla movies - the CGI looks pretty terrible compared to the Hulk example I used, a movie that came out two years earlier. And they weren't even rendering a living being, but a giant robot that had virtually no surface detail at all, and it still looked fake.

though you'd likely never guess it from how i am today,STARSHIP TROOPERS was actually one of my top favorite movies when it first came out.then again, i was far more conventionally-minded back in my mid/late-teens.

not to rag too hard on the film, -it IS quite solid and all- but you really kind of need to be a Right-Minded teen boy, -or at least one at heart- to really appreciate films of it's sort of ilk in full.

(i know, it is meant to be a scathing parody, i appreciate that. still and all, there are plenty of similar films out there that are clearly anything but)

just my dirty old man's twisted, liberal opinion from twenty years on, anyway...

If you haven't you really need to read the book, its a recommended and must read for all.I think its possibly his best, even better than Stranger in A Strange Land, I'm trying to read it again and I made it halfway so far.

The CGI Cartoon was horrible, I think I picked up a DVD once years ago and had to toss it it was so bad.

I need to watch the film again.So many memorable lines in that one.At Least I had you once

No matter how much I despise all CG, Starship Troopers looks...pretty good..

The movie or the CG cartoon?

The movie, never seen the cartoon. I know they made a large practical model for the starship, probably one of the last great filmed spacecraft. The bugs though, I have no idea how they did it. It seems like CG, but it's...acceptable? Was it a mix of practical and CGI? I know the backgrounds and sets were definitely real, maybe that's where CGI went wrong after that, CGI EVERYTHING, except actors..

Starship Troopers really has a great mix between cgi and real, it's one of those that get it right, and in returns, it hasn't aged a bit visually.For the bugs, they were practical when in close ups or when they don't move much, but cgi when there are lots of them and far away, like in the whiskey outpost scene.

Really digging back into Kimagure Orange Road. I watched 18 episodes initially in a short span before getting caught up with other stuff some months back. Enjoying it a lot and hoping to finish it in the next week or so.

Cool Saeba, good details. The movie isn't a favourite of mine, came out after my sorta own Golden Era of film but I never hated it.

Gypsy, cool, you got the TV LD box? Using your genlock to watch? It's another series I need to get on LD and watch with my genlock one of these days..Saw probably half on fansubbed VHS in the mid '90s, so many series like that where I saw half and never got the full set of fansubs..

Last thing I watched with my genlock was Gunbuster. I'm so satisfied with that I'm giving it a bit of time before I watch something new. But I want to watch Gundam, but decided I need the original full TV series instead of the compilation movies and subs for Zeta and ZZ! My Movie I has a big chunk out of the side of the disc! Just discovered it randomly and it still plays!! But the content is obviously so heavily edited that it's unsatisfying. Characters suddenly have relationships with other characters 2 minutes after they meet for the first time. This annoys me.

Nah I have the BD. It's really good. I have a lot of anime BDs of older titles and this one stands out especially considering it's made for TV (not a high cut OAV). I think shipping on the LD set alone would be a multitude more than I paid. When it's a situation like Yamato LD is a nice option but with a quality BD release that typically wins. At least I won't be competition when you are looking to get it.

One BD I was not particularly impressed with was Galaxy Express 999. A lot of that has to do with the source material. I think there is a good chance the LD is better in spots depending on the condition of the materials at the time used to make the LD.

I did really enjoy the original Gundam series when I watched it. Apparently even it got cut short, but it tells a complete story.

One BD I was not particularly impressed with was Galaxy Express 999. A lot of that has to do with the source material. I think there is a good chance the LD is better in spots depending on the condition of the materials at the time used to make the LD.

If you are talking about the film this is one of the few that I own the LD and DVD.The image is cleaner on the DVD but the LD has that older look, its the box set I own.Also its an open matte compared to the DVD which is cropped.

I would go to the LD over the DVD even without genlock.

Still looking for one at a good price.

They did this with Godmars, they made a shorter cut of the series in one shot, I really don't like them and preferthe entire series or nothing at all.

I did own the box of Gunbuster at one time but I couldn't get into it, may have been the newer style of anime that I can't grasp.

I did own the box of Gunbuster at one time but I couldn't get into it, may have been the newer style of anime that I can't grasp.

oh man, "newer style of anime"? it's from '88!? Maybe you mean you don't like gorgeously produced anime with high production values? You like a rougher look? I mean it doesn't lack texture or depth, the backgrounds, take the interior control centre on the Exelion that are dripping with detail is so good. Almost as good as the Macross bridge scenes in DYRL. ALL hand drawn, all with passion and love, just with more time and money than most studios releasing OVAs at the time would have had..

Please give it a second chance one day, for a start it's good sci fi, second it's Gainax's greatest achievement, I think it's the show that started their numbers on screen fetish? The music is so great, The characters are so great too, it builds to an epic climax and Noriko is cute as hell, especially in that pilot suit : P, the combat scenes later in the show are incredible and send chills up your spine. Seriously, it's so so awesome..I mean everything is great??!?! I can't understand how anyone, let alone an anime fan couldn't get into it

I guess by the mid to late 80s I didn't care about that style, just too slick and too much of the girls for me.Will give it another shot as I think it was something I didn't care about when I got a lot of stuff and really wanted the one box and soldGunbuster and whatever else came in the lot to recoup money at the time.

I swear the LD was great and didn't look like it was from tape but I'll have to run a few episodes of 999 to see again, its been about 10 years now.Need to enjoy that one.

Trying to stay away from owning series but I did just pickup a bootleg of fist of the north start on DVD to enjoy cheap.

Finally got all three (Rebuild of) Evangelion movies together in one spot earlier this week, and planning to marathon those as I have yet to watch movie 3.

Would like to weigh in my two cents on Starship Troopers.I like both the 1st and 3rd movies, and the Starship Trooper Chronicles CG series.

Movie 2 was utter crap that was a unneeded side-story at worst, or a low budget B-movie monster of the week movie at best. It was purely skippable garbage made solely as a cash grab that contributed nothing to the franchise universe and was really just plain bad all around.

Now to explain, the movie series and Chronicles are each their own separate things, both being their own different interpretations based on the original novel. However, where the movie series is purely all about the action, Chronicles boldly brought in and explored other elements of the book including expansion of the psy-ops and politics. The one grief all fans of Chronicles share with the studio that made Chronicles is that Sony pulled the plug on funding the series with only four episodes remaining to be animated to finish the series. The series producer did a interview back in the mid-2000's to let fans know that the entire affair already has all of the voice work recorded, episodes story boarded, and was just needed to be animated, but Sony canned funding. He released the scripts for the final four episodes at that time, which good luck finding them now. I use to have them, but lost them due to a hard drive failure wayback in 2008.

Chronicles catches a lot of criticism because it was presented as a syndicated children's cartoon, but it was most certainly not a children's cartoon. Sony wanted the series to sell action figures, like the movie had done, but the psychological and political themes never resonated with kids (imagine that). Locally where I live it aired at the horrible time slot of 9a.m. on Weekday mornings (during the school year no less), so it never got good market penetration. It's well worth stating that the series is dark and very gritty, but well worth watching in my personal opinion.

rewatched my Viz DVD of I"s Pure last night. Not bad, obviously lower budget than Video Girl Ai was. No opening or ending animation. It has its moments but lacks the beauty and definitely the music of Video Girl Ai. Video Girl is better source material too though.

Definitely don't bother with the previous I"s OVA, a ridiculous original story separate from the manga and very flat animation.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum